Warren Anderson's arrest on arrival in India after the Bhopal tragedy was a joke. He managed bail and a subsequent exit from the country and is yet to be extradited.

Anderson was arrested at Bhopal airport soon after he touched down from the US on December 7, 1984. The charge against him was serious: Culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Word spread across the streets of Bhopal that the man allegedly responsible for the mass murder at Union Carbide was here. People were baying for Anderson's blood.

The US embassy mounted pressure on the central government led by Rajiv Gandhi. Not only was Anderson released on bail immediately, he was flown to Delhi in a special Madhya Pradesh government aircraft. Arjun Singh was the chief minister of the state.

Anderson signed a bond that he would cooperate with the investigation and return when summoned. It was a promise he had no intention of fulfilling.

Three years later, Anderson was formally charged by CBI with culpable homicide. But the summons sent to him were ignored.

In 1998, an arrest warrant was issued and Anderson was declared a proclaimed offender. In 2003, 19 years after the tragedy, the Indian government finally moved the US to have Anderson extradited. The request was turned down by the US next year.

In August 2009, the CBI was asked about the status of the extradition. The agency said it had alerted the external affairs ministry and the matter was now with them.

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